EVERYTHING is an adventure

Step aside, beaches of Thailand, we’ve replaced you with the farm life.

When it comes to affordable and hassle-free getaways, you can’t beat a gorgeous farm with a pool. Say goodbye to overpriced cocktails at the hotel poolside, drink your favourite G&T or a bottle of wine from the farm’s own vineyard, at the pool instead.

We booked a last-minute getaway to Tanagra Wine Estate and Guest Farm, just outside McGregor this past week and it was glorious! It’s part of the Robertson Wine Route and also the Route 62, so exploring the surrounding areas is easy.

I’ve experienced my fair share of island holidays: Thailand, Mauritius, Croatia, Reunion, Bali, Lombok… but nothing quite beats the convenience of a quick 2 hour drive to another form of paradise and the seclusion of the Western Cape farm-style.

I’m not much of a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, mainly because it’s a once-off “I’ll go to gym every day this year” or “I’m going to quit smoking” promise that lasts a few weeks before everyone goes back to their same selves for the rest of the year.

Don’t get me wrong – the mere thought of wanting to change one’s self for the better is great, but let’s think more realistically here. Why aren’t we focusing on things that actually change us in the long run and make for a happier, healthier lifestyle in general? Call them HEALTHY LIFE Resolutions, if you will.

Here are my top 8 Healthy Life Resolutions that you can actually stick to:

1. Look after yourself

You’re no good to yourself or anybody else if you’re not in good condition – physically and mentally. It’s not only okay, but incredibly important that you take time to look after yourself.

2. Say goodbye to jealousy

This is a wasted emotion. It has more to do with your own insecurities than anything else. Sort those out.

3. Accept others’ shortcomings

There will always be sharks out there and there will always be morons. Find a way to work around them instead of getting stressed out or frustrated because of them. They’re unlikely to change their ways.

4. Be kind

Always.

5. Stick to your guns

Don’t get taken for a ride. It’s okay to say no sometimes. We don’t always have to bend over backwards for other people and agree with them when we actually don’t.

6. Make healthy decisions

With everything. What food you put into your body, what lifestyle choices you make, what you say in a fight with your partner.

7. Make more time for things that make you happy

This is important.

8. Do more yoga

Or whatever it is that helps you to calm and focus your mind. A strong mind is the cornerstone of a healthy life.

What to do with kids in Cape Town? I recently had my 10 and 6 year old nephew and niece for a few days and had to keep them occupied. These little critters tend to get easily bored and also cost a fortune to maintain (LOL) so here are some handy tips on inexpensive things I found to do with them. Luckily, it’s Winter here and the weather wasn’t terrible, so we had plenty of options and Winter specials to enjoy as well!

This was an absolute hit with the kids! Cruising around town on an open top bus is fun on its’ own, but there are super-fun stops along the way. I’ve listed some of my favourites below separately because you can really spend hours at each of these places on their own. City sightseeing currently has a winter 3-for-1 kids special on at the moment (weekends and public holidays) where 2 kids get free tickets with each adult, cutting the cost down tremendously! I suggest checking out the stops and discounts beforehand so that you can make the best of the trip.

There’s loads to do in these beautiful gardens. A wander through the gardens of “smelly plants” where you touch and smell different nice and not-so-nice plant scents, useful plants and the garden of extinction are highlights. As are the Dinosaur exhibition in the cycad garden and the Boomslang treetop walkway, of course.

This is by far my favourite! You could probably spend the most part of a day here. I usually steer clear of anything animal-touristy or zoo-like, but this is not that. They have plenty of open, walk-in aviaries and sanctuaries for birds, monkeys, reptiles etc. and most of the animals there are rescued. A favourite here is the Monkey Jungle, where the monkeys like to jump on the visitors in their jungle!

You can also spend a considerable amount of time in here and it’s educational. The museum has various exhibitions relating to the sea, the earth, dinosaurs, natural wonders etc. They have real-size models of some of the world’s biggest animals – amazing to see how big our whales really are! Pair this up with a Planetarium show and your entire day is full (phone ahead to make sure that there is a show on that day).

Usually pretty expensive for a family outing, the Table Mountain Cableway currently has a 3-for-1 Kids Special on (weekends and public holidays) and is well worth the trip. You can stroll around on top of the mountain for a while and perhaps a picnic on the rocks somewhere at the top is an idea? Be sure to book online and arrive before they even open to avoid queuing for most of the day.

Beach!

By far the most effective and inexpensive (free) thing to do with kids in Cape Town is to just go to the beach. Llandudno’s my favourite, but Clifton is always a safe best when there’s a bit of wind.

Have you ever been through a friendship breakup? I mean have you ever made a mature, adult decision that a person in your life is no longer in line with the values and beliefs that make you who you are?

Adulting is so hard sometimes.

I’m in my 30s and starting to become very “picky” about what I surround my own energy with. This was never a problem in my 20s, but in my 30s, I’m finding less and less time to spend on that which doesn’t gel with my own ongoing adventure to better myself and be happy – for myself and those around me.

“You are the company you keep” is such a terrible cliché, but dammit, it’s true. You can’t surround yourself with negative people and expect to live a positive life. You can’t surround yourself with people whose values oppose yours and expect your values to be enhanced. You can’t surround yourself with people who suck your energy when you’re trying to preserve yours.

Sometimes friendships just run their course and people grow in different directions. It happens all the time and we often get stuck in a relationship that doesn’t serve either parties because neither of them has the courage to face the reality that it’s not sustainable. Forcing a relationship that isn’t working is toxic.

I’m such a sucker for a small town and the Western Cape ones are my absolute favourite! Send me away for the weekend to somewhere with old houses, farmlands and wine and I’m happy as a pig in mud. My husband and I booked a last-minute getaway to Tulbagh and here are some of our highlights. It’s only 1,5 hours from Cape Town too, so perfect for a weekend.

The architecture here is beautiful. Cape Dutch style buildings are the trademark, including our guest house – Cape Dutch Quarters. Don’t mess around here – book an Executive Suite. Breakfasts are served on Spode china too 🙂

Yep – we will ALWAYS find a trail. This one is in Waterval Nature Reserve. Take this walk to a waterfall.

Wine tasting in the old courthouse jail! Drostdy Hof is an interesting visit, complete with a museum tour.

I am not joking, no. There is such a thing as healthy white sauce for pastas, veggie bakes, cheese sauce etc. Not only is it healthy, but only uses 3 easy ingredients and is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, low carb. It’s basically black magic!

I used mine in a vegetarian alfredo pasta dish and it’s one of my favourite health hacks of all time.

Add the cooked cauliflower, coconut milk and vegetable stock to a blender.

Blend until smooth and creamy.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

I used mine for a vegetarian alfredo sauce with Fry’s vegetarian sausage, fried onion, garlic and mushrooms. Another health hack of mine is to use shirataki noodles instead of pasta and the result is a really low carb version of a potentially fatty and unhealthy meal! It made enough sauce for 4 good portions.

In my last post, you read about our MOST AMAZING WEDDING IN THE WORLD EVER MOST AMAZING WEDDING IN THE WORLD EVER, now I’m going to tell you about the MOST AMAZING HOLIDAY DESTINATION EVER that was our honeymoon! We spent a few nights in Mauritius (average, commercial, boring) and then took a 20 minute flight to Reunion, where the real adventure awaited us…

Husband and I are both active and adventurous, so Reunion with its’ wild terrain, volcanoes, waterfalls and beaches attracted our attention immediately.

Our travel agent (Nicci Hayden from Travel Counsellors) hooked us up in 3 awesome spots for 3 completely different experiences over 7 nights – in St Pierre, Cilaos and St Gilles. (My advice – do 10 nights at least, there is so much that we didn’t see!)

When we arrived in St Pierre, at our gorgeous B&B (La Plantation Cote Lagon), we got the perfect feeling for the holiday ahead.

Reunion is like Paris and a wild tropical island had a love affair and this is their love-child. (I said that, you can quote me)

This B&B gave us the definite French feeling with the decor and home-made French breakfasts, opening up right onto the “lagoon” in St Pierre.

While staying here, we made the trip out to Piton de la Fournaise – the island’s biggest and one of the world’s most active volcanoes. The 12km hike over uneven volcanic rock is worth it to sit at the top of the Dolomieu crater and watch it smoulder faaaaar down below your feet.

In it’s eruption of 1977, lava spewed through the town of Piton Sainte-Rose chewing up everything in its’ path except Notre Dame des Laves Church, where the lava flow slightly entered the front of the church, split and flowed around the building. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I didn’t see it.

No trip to Reunion is complete without an adrenalin rush. Our first of its’ kind was experienced on the winding road up to Cilaos, an old village in the middle of a huge cirque, where hikes and adventure are the name of the game. 400 hairpin bends, often so sharp and narrow that only one car can fit at a time, was a good taste of adrenalin before we even got there! I couldn’t take a picture because I was too busy chewing off my nails. Once there, though, it’s a hiker’s/trail runner’s/mountain biker’s dream.

This area and its’ surrounds is also well-known for canyoning. Which we didn’t try. Don’t judge us, look:

We tried the downhill mountain biking, which was most excellent (and dirty). A shuttle takes you to the top of Le Maido (2200m high) and you mountain bike downhill (basically standing up, riding those brakes and trying not to fly off head-first) for a few hours. It was wonderful!

And not to be outdone by the ‘Maurituses’ of the world, Reunion has its’ own 5-star luxury resort on a long and picture-perfect white-sand beach. The reef here is quite long and safe, so you can venture into the water without being eaten by sharks 😂 Ocean life is in abundance here and so are the mojitos. Lux St Gilles was a most beautiful treat and a wonderful end to our honeymoon explorations!

That all being said, here’s my top 10 reasons to go to Reunion:

It’s all about adventure

You don’t need a visa (with a South African passport)

You get to fumble your way through some non-existent French language skills

Baguettes

It’s not yet overrun by tourists and you won’t get haggled or conned

It’s still raw and wild

It’s got a European flavour, with an island vibe

It’s friendly

It’s not yet spoilt by irresponsible tourism

You can still spoil yourself with tropical island bliss to ease your aching, adventure muscles.

Getting married is a big deal. And planning a wedding can be incredibly stressful. I’ve just done it. And survived to tell the tale! Here are my top tips for planning a wedding that doesn’t kill you (or your bank account).

1.Ditch the stuffy things

The best way to stress yourself out about your wedding is to allow yourself to be sucked into all the “wedding things” that are just required because it’s a wedding, not because you actually want them. Decide what you want to experience on the day, not what should be seen. We are really relaxed and with a beach wedding to back that up, we ditched these things to make our wedding more comfortable and true to ourselves:

The bouquet: Why must I hold flowers in front of my beautiful dress? It also frees up an extra hand for bubbly if it’s not there.

Seating arrangements and formal eating: There’s nothing worse than going to a wedding and being stuck at a table of people you don’t particularly have anything in common with, and waiting around for “things to happen” or food to be served. Consider a cocktail-style arrangement and have casual seating mixed in between. It works, I promise!

Throwing the garter and bouquet: Just why must we do these things? Also, if there’s no bouquet or garter to throw…

Cash bar: Particularly if you’re having a destination wedding, which most people are doing these days, guests have made a huge effort to be there. Snatch up a good deal from a wine farm or bottle store and treat them with a selection of your favourite drinks.

Speeches: People want to hear from you, of course, but there is no reason that there have to be speeches from specific people in the wedding party or that the bride doesn’t get to say what she likes to her party crowd.

OTT Cake: Hands up who remembers even eating the wedding cake at a wedding? We had little, delicious micro-cakes that formed part of the dessert array instead of an expensive over-the-top cake that nobody eats. For us, the oysters were far more important than the cake anyway 😉

The photo-shoot: Wedding photos are a must, of course, but at what cost to your day? Everything goes by so quickly and you want to be able to spend time with all your guests and enjoy it, instead of posing for awkward, styled photos that aren’t “real”.

2. This is YOUR wedding

For some reason, people start to get weird when they get involved with a wedding. It tends to become about everybody else and the bride and groom often end up just going with whatever is being planned around them.

Discuss upfront what you’d like your wedding to be like and stick to that.

Allow people to help you, but provide some guidance so that they are actually helping you and not doing what they would have liked if it was their wedding.

This time, it really is about you.

3. It’s not a production

It’s a celebration, but not a production.

Don’t get caught up in the all the little things, it’s not worth it.

Choose a venue that doesn’t need a lot of work. Spending time, money and effort on little things that people don’t use or notice (mainly because they’re wondering when the food is going to come out because they’ve had 3 glasses of bubbly and about to fall over) is not your best idea.

Keep it simple and focus on the most important elements: the catering, the entertainment, the vibe.

4. Have an amazing MC

Pick a friend that can look after the day’s proceedings

Draft a schedule of what’s supposed to happen when and let him/her ensure that it goes that way

Once you know that someone is in charge of that and that guests know exactly how things are happening, then everybody is far more relaxed.

5. You will go over budget

Expect it. Don’t freak out about it. Plan for it.

Get quotes and costs on everything before you buy anything.

Consider renting instead of buying wherever possible. What are you going to do with 20 vases and 700m of fairy lights after the day?

This is a recipe from Nutriholist, which I adapted according to the ingredients I had! These salted brownie “cheesecake” bites are so decadently creamy and sweet, you’d never guess that there is no cream or sugar involved!

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 cup almonds

5 dates, pitted

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

2 Tbsp. coconut oil

½ tsp. cinnamon

Pinch of salt

For the filling:

1 ½ cup cashews

½ cup unsweetened almond milk

1 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. coconut oil

½ tsp. vanilla essence

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Pinch of sea salt

To make the crust: Combine all crust ingredients in a food processor and process until a sticky mixture forms.

Grease a muffin tray however you see fit (not really necessary if it’s a non-stick tray). Transfer the crust mixture to the trays and press down into an even layer. Place in the freezer or fridge while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling: Add all filling ingredients except for cocoa powder and salt to the food processor and process until smooth and creamy.

Remove muffin tray from the fridge or freezer and pour half of the “cheesecake” filling on top of each base.

Add cocoa powder to the food processor and process some more to combine. Dollop the chocolate mixture on top.